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posted by chromas on Friday September 07 2018, @12:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the police dept.

Apple to provide online tool for police to request data: letter

Apple Inc plans to create an online tool for police to formally request data about its users and to assemble a team to train police about what data can and cannot be obtained from the iPhone maker, according to a company letter seen by Reuters. The letter, dated Sept. 4, was from Apple General Counsel Kate Adams to U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island. Apple declined to comment beyond the letter.

Apple can and does provide some user data, such as data stored in its iCloud online service, to law enforcement officials if they make a valid legal request. But Apple has sparred with U.S. law enforcement officials because it encrypts its devices in such a way that Apple cannot access the devices if asked to do so.

The company said in its letter that it had responded to 14,000 U.S. law enforcement requests last year, including 231 "domestic emergency requests," that it largely addressed within 20 minutes of receipt "regardless of the time of day or night."

Apple previously handled those requests via email, a company spokesman confirmed. By the end of this year, Apple will provide an online tool for law enforcement officials to make and track requests, according to its letter.

MacRumors obtained the letter. Apple's changes are a response to a recent Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report.

Also at The Verge and CNBC.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by DannyB on Friday September 07 2018, @05:33PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 07 2018, @05:33PM (#731847) Journal

    There is no reason to turn it into a mass production style operation.

    The easier you make it for law enforcement, the more you are inviting them to abuse it more than they already do.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @04:30AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @04:30AM (#732042)

    I note many businesses use "web-based support" as a bullet-point for promotions making one think that support is available. You know, similar to printing "support" 800 numbers on exterior packaging to give the customer the reassurance that there is someone there to help him should a problem arise.

    But should you actually go to that website, or call that number, you find yourself in a maze of tiny twisty passages, all alike, and they waste your time until you give up.

    Businesses *love* machines to handle people, as once the money has changed hands, that's all that matters.... those customers are no longer profit centers once the charges have been approved... they are now a loss center, and one needs to expend as little effort as possible to deal with it. Having a machine deal with it is even cheaper.

    And the machine has a bonus... it does not mind making people steaming mad.

    While providing Business with a defendable claim that support has been provided.

    I can just imagine law enforcement bringing up the same kind of pages I get sometimes... where I go around and around and around, waiting for slow page loads, scads of ads, and get nothing that was after. Flaunting authority will not impress a computer in the least, it does not even care if you are the President of the United States... its gonna do whatever someone else told it to do. Including making you wait for ads, or not understand any queries you may type... just like Eliza.

    • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday September 08 2018, @08:34PM

      by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 08 2018, @08:34PM (#732307) Journal

      But should you actually go to that website, or call that number, you find yourself in a maze of tiny twisty passages, all alike, and they waste your time until you give up.

      I think in the new version, you get eaten by a grue.